Mark Cavendish (Omega Pharma-Quick Step) claimed stage two of the Three Days of De Panne with a determined sprint finish in Koksijde. The Briton held off the challenge of Elia Viviani (Cannondale) and Francesco Chicchi (Vini Fantini-Selle Italia) to take the win.

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Peter Sagan (Cannondale) was distanced in the final six kilometres and surrenders the overall lead, and with it, the obligation to take the start of Thursday’s concluding split stage. The leader’s jersey now passes to Arnaud Démare (FDJ), who finished fourth on the stage.

Cavendish’s Omega Pharma-Quick Step team split the peloton with its forcing in the finale, after late escapees Koen Barbé (Crelan-Euphony), Alessandro Bazzana (UnitedHealthcare) and Dmitriy Gruzdev (Astana) had been swept up on the final lap of the finishing circuit in Koksijde.

Omega Pharma-Quick Step’s collective strength almost proved counter-productive in the finale, however, as Iljo Keisse and Niki Terpstra’s pace-setting was such that they brought Cavendish and Chicchi clear of the bunch with two kilometres to go. When Lotto Belisol shut the move down underneath the red kite, it looked as though Cavendish’s challenge was over.

Instead, Cavendish held his nerve and negotiated his way back through the peloton inside the final kilometre, and he went on to edge out Viviani, Chicchi and Arnaud Démare (FDJ) in the keenly-contested sprint.

Too soon for the big break

The break of the day established itself in the opening kilometres of the 208.9km stage with Mattia Pozzo (Vini Fantini-Selle Italia) keen for another day out in front having also featured in one of Stage 1's splinter groups. The Italian was joined by Niko Eeckhout (An Post – Chainreaction), Kevin Claeys (Crelan – Euphony), Tim Mertens (Topsport Vlaanderen – Baloise), and Matt Brammeier (Champion System) for a maximum advantage of 8:25 with 90km of racing complete, just ahead of the day's major section of hellingen.

Brammeier led the charge over the Monteberg, followed by Pozzo and Claeys but as the race leaders hit the Kemmelberg, their gap had dropped by a minute.

With the peloton about to hit the Monteberg, Tom Boonen (Omega Pharma-QuickStep) punctured, losing ground.

Pozzo then took the spoils over the Kemmelberg and the Rodeberg with the battle to stay out in front proving too much for Mertens as he fell back, leaving a breakaway of four. Pozzo continued to lead the front group over the Vidaigneberg and the final climb of the Sulfeerberg, enough to move him into second place in the Mountains Classification behind leader, Marco Haller (Katusha).

The hellingen out of the way, and around 90km of racing remaining, Mertens was able to rejoin the break, with their advantage at six minutes over the peloton.

The brief reprieve gave rise to another attack, this time Koen Barbé (Crelan-Euphony) an aggressor from Stage 1, Alessandro Bazzana (UnitedHealthcare) and Gruzdev quickly earning around half a minute on the bunch with 50km to go. Content to let the trio surge ahead, with the gap out to two minutes by the time Barbé took the first sprint, extending his lead in the classification.

As the lead three headed through the finish line for the first of three loops around Koksijde, Katusha and Orica GreenEdge moved several of their men to the head of the chase, with the Omega Pharma-Quick Step train almost complete in their wake. The lift in the pace, along with the windy conditions soon brought the break's advantage down to just over one minute and shattering the back end of the bunch with around 60 riders tailing off.

With 20km remaining, the gap to the leader's dropped to under a minute, with Orica GreenEdge and Lotto Belisol at the head of the chase, keen for their sprinters Leigh Howard and Andre Greipel to succeed. With 11km left to go, Barbé threw in the towel but Bazzana and Gruzdev weren't quite ready to give up the spotlight, and the peloton was content to let them suffer their last moments up front.

The peloton negotiated a narrow section of the run-in, with only one incident - Lampre's Mattia Cattaneo went down - before sweeping past first Bazzana and then Gruzdev and with 8km to go it was all together.

The lead-out trains began to assemble and the pace picked up at the front, but race leader Peter Sagan was at the back, a gap opening up between him, his teammates and the peloton.

With no sign of Cannondale at the front, Boonen rallied his Omega Pharma-Quick Step team, setting a blistering pace for Cavendish with 6km to go, but Viviani was tucked in just behind. The team put in such an effort that with 2km to go there was a gap with Iljo Keisse and Niki Terpstra pulling Cavendish clear and only Francesco Chicchi (Vini Fantini) able to hang on, but it was too soon and Lotto-Belisol was able to close the gap.

Cavendish was left on the front very early, but tucked in behind for a moment before pulling off a long, long sprint and held off Viviani and Chicchi to take a very hard-earned stage victory.